The Red Thread
by Eternal-Explosionist
Summary: The secondary character is often left on the sideline or as the support with no proper voice. Two similar characters are drawn together by the things they value.Honor, loved ones, strength, selflessness, love, simplicity. Fate in the form of a red thread.
1. Chapter 1

Eternal: Yes, some ol' YYH for memories sake. For everybody's information, this story was an old piece of my friend's from when we were in 8th grade. The main character of the saga was Riko, and a few years ago I wanted to try writing it from Artemis's perspective. She was mine and a secondary character in the series.

So, this is my style on an ancient piece of writing with some changes to the original (not that you would know, my readers. Thank goodness). I hope everyone enjoys.

* * *

_**The Red Thread**_

**Chapter One**

She screamed. Never before had she screamed so hard in her life, her chest and throat viberating with volume. Never before had she lost something so close to her heart. Her legs moved impossibly fast as she sprinted to the smoking pile of a building.

_"Riko!" _she called._ "Riko, hang on! Dammit!"_ The huge pieces of rubble had nothing on her strength when enhanced by adrenaline. Chunk by jagged chunk was lfted from the pile as she dug closer to her buried friend. Her limp hand was the only thing she could see and her silver ring around her thumb glinted pitifully in the afternoon sun. Sweat streamed and mixed with her tears as she huffed and forced herself to move more, to pull her muscles further. She didn't care if she broke her own bones if it meant that she could move faster to get to her. The burning sensation or the small cuts meant nothing to her at the moment. Nothing outside of her friend mattered. How the accident happened, she didn't know.

Now, the upper portion of Riko was showing. Her head was tilted to the side and her eyes were closed. She refused to be discouraged and it didn't take that much longer for her dirtied hands to tug her away from the remains. Gasping and heaving, she finally pulled off far enough for her legs to give out.

_"Riko?"_ she asked tentatively. The shorter girl didn't answer. She touched her cheek, then her neck, followed by her wrist, struggling for vital signatures. There was no pulse at her neck or wrist. No color flushing her cheeks. No breath.

Nothing.

Gagging on her own sobs, she got to her knees and started to apply pressure to her heart. One, two, three, wait. Nothing. One, two, three, wait. Still nothing. One last time, one, two, three, wait.

Riko still wasn't breathing.

_"Dammit, Riko! Don't you leave me here!" _Nothing.

_"You're my fucking best friend! You can't just up and die without even warning me!"_ She choked on a sob, trying again to restart her heart. _"I need you here!"_

If she hadn't been late getting to their meeting spot, she could've saved her. If only she had driven a little faster, she could've made it. If that light hadn't turned red, or if she had passed the grandpa in the Ford. If only...

Sirens wailed in the distance, but she didn't seem to hear them as they got closer or as they pried her away from the still body. They loaded Riko onto the stretcher and her curly black hair danced as they stored her in the back of the hospital vehicle. The other men in white were afraid that she herself had gone into traumatic shock, but she didn't care what they thought as she sobbed, gagged and snotted into her jacket's sleeves.

Arteyu Nazima had lost her best friend.

* * *

She was your average teenage girl, Arteyu.

She was the oldest of four children, age eighteen, attended K_ Academy and was in the top percentile of her class. Her record was clean of felonies or misdemeanors and she even won the Good Citizen Award the year before. She was tall, with light brown hair she usually kept in a ponytail because she preferred it out of her face. Ontop of her school work, she had wrangled special permission to hold a part time job at restaurant in the middle of Kyoto, which kids at her school usually avoided because it was too public and inclined to low class citizens. K_ Academy was notorious for being a snob school, and most students were.

Simple, boring, and well mannered was Arteyu Nazima. She kept to herself and stayed out of everyone's way. Most students hardly knew that she was in their class. She was just the girl with her nose in the book, nothing else.

It was when she was under her psuedonym when things started to get interesting, and when she was allowed to live.

Her best friend Riko, was usually a magnet for trouble, whether she was the instigator or not. Since she was almost always with her, she was dragged into the fights or indecent scenes as well. In order to maintain her record and to keep her parents out of trouble, she gave herself an alter-ego.

Artemis.

It was the name of the goddess of the moon and hunt, it was perfect. Close enough to her real name, but different enough to keep thugs off her trail and away from her family. Artemis was strong and capable of handling fights and arguements with skill. She was unafraid of confrontation or handling her extraordinary sixth sense. Artemis and Riko went hand in hand when it came to dealing with the harsh outside world or otherworld creatures.

Due to her special sense gift, she was a walking magnet for demons and the underworld alike. Ghosts were drawn to her due to her ability to hear and communicate with them, and demons were always up for terrozing an interesting human. Arteyu was terrified of acknowledging the third world life, but Artemis had the spunk to deal with them and even put them back in their place.

Arteyu rarely dreamed, but when she did she could only remember vague details. For example, a viberant red string tied around her left pinky finger. It was of vital importance to the dream, but the reason always escaped her. She tried not to think about it much, especially when she thought it meant something. It was strange how she had the dream so often.

Idly, she examined her bare hand, imagining the thread that would appear once she was asleep. She sighed and returned to her textbook, wondering how soon her friend would come to haunt her like all the others.

* * *

"Yuuuuuuuuusuuuuuuuke!" called the peppy grim reaper as she soared down on her oar. Her bright blue hair waved about her face as she came to a smooth stop next to the deliquent-turn-decent.

The called detective looked up from his lounging on the school's rooftop. He attended home room and most of (twenty minutes) of Takenaka's English class, that was more motivation than he was accustom to. He was exhausted and sought refuge on his favorite high spot. Out of class but not quite off school property. Perfect.

"Whattaya want, Botan? I'm trying to sleep here," he mumbled, turning onto his side.

She huffed, obviously not impressed.. "Please, it's barely ten o' clock! What reason do you have to be tired? _I_ should be the one that's tired! The Underworld's been crazy these past few days with no help from you guys!" She dealt his head a swat from her oar until he was on his feet, which thankfully on his brain cell's part, he got up rather quickly.

"Awright, awright! Stop hittin' me already!" He rubbed the back of his now-tender skull, mumbling incoherant swear words resembling "old crazy witch".

"Why you-" she began, tightening her grip on her oar, temper obviously on a hair trigger.

"I said, so where's Kuwabara? Don't we need him too?" he lied, covering his tracks and the safety of his head. Her anger seemed to deflat instantly.

"Yes, I already sent him a message-Aha! Here he is!" she chirped as the door opened, revealing the orange haired Spirit Team member. A little out of breath from bolting out of class, but nothing out of the usual.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" he asked, stepping up to stand beside Yusuke.

"Koenma needs you guys in his office ASAP. We've got a case on our hands," she warned, hopping back onto her oar. "Grab on!" They groaned simultanously as they quickly got a tight hold of the oar as she bolted to the otherworld. They took a scenic route, flying over the River Styx and taking a couple of sharp turns in order to avoid the commoner enterance. As top grim reaper she was allowed a few privaleges, first being access to a shortcut.

After regaining their balance outside of Koenma's office, Yusuke spoke up first.

"So, what does the diaper king want us to do now? Did he lose his binky?"

"Be respectful!" she reprimanded firstly. "All I know for certain is that we have a bit of a ghost issue to overcome."

"What kind of ghost issue?" asked Kuwabara. "Besides Urameshi, don't they just go where they're suppose to?" Botan fiddled with the hem of her bubblegum pink kimono, looking a little nervous.

"Well, yes. I'm there to guide the spirit to their designated afterlife, and that goes without a hitch on most days. But this one...wasn't suppose to die excatly." The boys raised an eyebrow in question and waited for her to elaborate. She looked around nervously as if waiting for something to come flying at her.

"Her friend was suppose to be there to prevent the death, but she was late by only a minute-not her fault of course! But it wasn't the right time for the now-ghost, and Koenma is ready to offer her a chance at life and we need her friend in order for it to work."

Yusuke shrugged his shoulders. "So? What's the problem? Let's call up the friend and be done with it."

There was a crash on the other side of the door and the grim reaper flinched.

"She's not taking too kindly to the fact that there's no place for her afterlife, or her friend's involvement." The Spirit detective simply rolled his eyes and kicked open the door without any preamble.

"Yo! What's up? I hear we have a pissy poltergeist?"

The girl with black hair that fell in ringlets paid him no mind as she continued to yell at the young second-in command of the Spirit World.

"-And there's no fuckin' way I'm lettin' you guys con her into reviving me! Ya got that? No fuckin' way!"

Oh boy.

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**R E V I E W! Please and thank you, I always love hearing your thoughts!**


	2. Chapter 2

Eternal:

Warning: Riko's language isn't very lady like and she's not too reserved or heldback. Just so you know.

_**The Red Thread**_

**Chapter Two**

"Riko, if you would just calm down-" started Koenma. The teenage girl did not comply to his request. If anything, it irritated her further.

"Calm down? No, I won't fucking calm down!" Her black hair was moving due to the force of her anger, seeing as she was dead her emotions were shown a little differently. Hazel eyes glared at the young ruler and she clenched her fists. "I'm not draggin' anyone else into this mess, y'hear me? No one else!"

She was dressed in black skinny jeans and wore a loose black hoodie over her lithe form, the silver designs tended to catch the light in the living world, not anymore. Yusuke huffed at being ignored, so he simply kicked it up a notch.

"Yo! If everyone could SHUT UP!" The room was silent for a moment, long enough for everyone to turn and stare at him. "Now, what the hell's goin' on?" Riko was quick to answer and to turn her glare on the Spirit Detective.

"I'll tell you what's goin' on here, _buddy_," she started, ghost form approaching him. "This ruler, who's still in diapers by the way, wants me to go back to the human world, take my best friend's soul and use it as currency so I can return to life. How does that fuckin' sound?" Koenma flinched as she appeared at the front of his desk, arms crossed and glare incrreasing.

"So you better rip open some sort of spot for me. I don't care if its heaven or hell, just get me out of this fucking limbo shit!" she demanded

"So, why does it need to be her friend's soul?" asked Kurama. He and Hiei had entered the room silently, so to avoid attention and anger.

"'Bout time you guys showed up," grouched Yusuke.

"Hn," mumbled Hiei. Koenma cleared his throat, gaining their quite divided attention.

"We need Arteyu's soul because of her friendship with Riko, but more importantly, because of her sixth sense ability," informed the ruler. Everyone shared the same vacant look and the young ruler sighed. "Due to her high sixth sense, her soul is already apart of the Spirit world. A simple soul retraction wouldn't harm her, not to mention once Riko's situation is finalized, then she just returns to her body. No problem. The point is, we need her soul's strength to force Riko back into her body."

There was a moment of thoughtful silence before Kurama turned to Riko.

"Do you know where we could find Arteyu?" he asked politely. Her arms remained tightly crossed as she refused to make eye contact.

"She's probably at work."

* * *

The bus rolled to a stop and Arteyu stepped off and thanked the driver. It puttered away with a cough of smoke as she headed for the restaurant. She sighed. Another day another dollar.

As soom as she opened the back door, she was greeted with noise. Machines hissing, phones ringing, utensils clanking, such is the orchestra of work. Lots of people talking. She would be chattering away soon as well.

"C'mon Arteyu! We need you up front!" shouted the cook. She hung up her bag and tied the apron around her waist, washing her hands quickly.

"I'm coming. Don't know what you guys would ever do without me," she teased.

The first step was to tidy up the dining room that had been left unattended. She picked up dishes and wiped down tables quickly before the other customer could notice, stacking plates and cups impossibly high. Next came to tending to the customers and taking their orders.

It was a busy night, sporting events and families seemed to all have the one restaurant in mind. All the while, Arteyu smiled and chatted with everyone, taking their orders and making their drinks in such a flurry, she hardly needed another employee's help. Though her nerves kicked in just slightly when the line got longer, making her fingers tap against the counter, wanting to move everyone through faster. Not to mention the new employee was scared of everyone and she didn't hesitate to boss the new girl, wanting the jobs to get done and done right.

By nine o' clock she had finished cleaning up her area and the dining room, exhausted. She shouldered her bag and bit back a groan, now she had to go home and finish typing her paper for Rhetoric 101, her English AP class. Not that it would take too long, it was just annoying to do.

No sooner had she stepped up to the bus stop, she felt it. There was another presence nearby, a couple if she focused. Four people, that was for certain but the most prominent factor was the fifth person. Or should she say ghost.

"How're you doing Riko?" she called out into the air. There was a faint shimmer as her friend came into focus.

"Hey," she greeted. Her mouth formed a frown as she stuffed her hands into her pockets. Arteyu raised an eyebrow and readjusted her bag.

"Why so sour, grape?" A light smirk tugged at her mouth but she forced it back down and huffed.

"The brat of the Spirit World want to see you," she explained. "You can help bring me back to life, or some shit like that." The living girl sighed.

"Is that why you have that team tailing you? To make sure I come quietly?" she asked. "Honestly, they're not too subtle. Someone's energy is flaring like the fourth of July." Riko smirked.

"You could sense them, huh? That oughta be a kick to their egos." She turned toward the dark alley, hollaring.

"You can come out! She knows you're there ya fuckin' pansies!"

"That's sweet. You're just as charming as you were alive," laughed Arteyu. "Glad to know some things don't ever change."

Footsteps could be heard as the team stepped from the shadows that were completely concealing them. Four boys, a red head, a short one with dark hair, a tall one with a pushed back style 'do and the tallest had orange hair in an Elvis impersonater style.

Arteyu's smile was short lived when she felt a tug on her left hand. Alarmed, she pulled her hand from her pocket and brought it up to eye level, studying it. A length of red had looped around her left pinky finger, tying itself into a delicate bow. Her eyebrows furrowed confused.

"Artemis? What's up?" asked Riko. She shook her head, not looking away from the string, in case it would disappear.

"I...don't know," she answered truthfully. It tugged again, the connecting end pulling her, enough force to make her take a step forward. Concluding that the other end of the string must be near, she looked up quickly, following the fading length of the string.

The tall one. He was staring at his hand too, equally confused. His left hand was also extended and pulling him forward, though his footsteps were a bit more following. The forced tugged her again but she planted her feet into the ground.

The red string of fate. Or love as some called it. People often gossiped about finding their soul mate, or their true love and Arteyu thought it was admirable and romantic, but never really believed in it. Because really, who would fall in love with just one glance?

"Yo, Kuwabara, whatcha doin'?" asked the one in the green uniform. He could only shake his head, stepping closer to her. Only they could see it.

"I-I dunno. I'm not doing this," he answered. It was like trying to resist a magnet's pull, thought Arteyu as she leaned further back, defying the laws of physics as she tried to regain control of her body. Maybe it was just a sixth sense episode, that made sense. Her constant dream was playing a trick on her and it simply escaladed because of her gift. That made sense, sort of.

She could see it now. The red string was wrapped around his smallest finger and the length was shortening as they came closer together. She tried to back away but the unknown force made it practically impossible to do so. Her feet pushed against the ground, like a cartoon resisting something, but as soon as her foot caught the edge of her other shoe and her balance faltered, the resistance was over.

The force pulled them to each other, her hand clasping his so to remain upright. A number of things happened at once. First off, her sixth awareness soared off the chart overloading her mind with nearby demons, lost souls and the out of the ordinary. Next, her pulse throbbed frantically, as if her heart was trying to beat out of her chest. She was also hyperly aware of the fact that he was holding her hand, fingers lined up, halfway lacing. His hand dwarfed hers and her long fingers and she could feel callouses on his palm, making the skin tough. Every hair was standing on end as goosebumps broke out. Chills raced up and down her spine as she slowly looked up at him, absolutely paralyzed.

Brown eyes crashed with blue and her face flushed pink. What was this? She had never heard a story where two strangers are forced to hold hands because of a mythical red thread.

"What the fuckin' hell is goin' on?" demanded Riko, as confused as everyone else. "Do you know him, Artemis?" She dumbly shook her head.

"Haven't a clue..." she managed.

She came to about his shoulder, noticed Kuwabara. Tall for a girl, but not an athletic tall, a well built kind of tall. Her brown hair was pulled into a ponytail and her blue eyes were wide as she stared up at him. Scared. He wondered why. His sixth sense was going haywire, aware of practically everything from their location to center Tokyo. Not to mention that he couldn't even move. Some sort of paralysis had grabbed hold and refused to let go.

"K-Kazuma Kuwabara," he introduced, voice oddly shaking. Why was his face growing warm? Only Yukina had the pure power to make him blush and that was because he fell in love with her the moment he saw her on the mission video.

"Arteyu Nazima," she answered with a nod. "Howdy." With more force than should have been necessary, she pulled her hand away fros. The unnatural awareness faded to its normal rates and the paralysis faded.

"So," Arteyu spoke up. "You need me for something, right? Let's get to it then, I've got a paper to finish."

**

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R E V I E W! Please please, I know its short and everything, but it's slowly rolling along, so your thoughts would be greatly appreciated! G'night!


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